Stanley Wayne Cooper, 72, was killed while on duty as a court security officer at the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas on the morning of January 4, 2010. A veteran of law enforcement, Cooper had retired as a sergeant after 26 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and joined the U.S. Marshals Service as a special deputy in 1994.

Shortly after 8 a.m., a man later identified as Johnny Lee Wicks entered the courthouse and opened fire with a shotgun. Cooper, positioned at the building’s entrance, was fatally wounded in the initial barrage. Law enforcement officers inside the courthouse returned fire and pursued Wicks out onto the street, where he was shot and killed by responding officers. Investigators later concluded Wicks likely held a grudge against the federal government; as the lone perpetrator, his death ended the search for a suspect and no arrests were made in Cooper’s murder.

Cooper has been described as having acted as the first line of defense that morning.